Nearly half of IT professionalsbelieve that the U.S. government will be hit with a "majorcyberattack" in the next 12 months, according to the survey, conducted for the BusinessSoftware Alliance. BSA PresidentRichard Holleyman, announcing the survey results at ane-government conference here, said an attack could range from a discrete attempt to get at a select groupof highly sensitive data to a broad-ranging attack on multiple systems.
The most important step that needs to be taken is tomake sure that even if government systems arebreached, the data itself is encrypted andprotected.
The government's own past surveys have also given many governmentagencies flunkinggrades when it comes to computer security.
But officials at the press conference cautioned, "If we think technology is a silver bullet, we'rewrong."
"It's got to be used with policies and procedures,"said Bill Conner, CEO of BSA member Entrust, which sells IT security software and services.
The government should be devoting at least as much time, energy and money to cybersecurity as it did to the Year 2000 bug, Conner said.
"We put a lot of emphasis on airplane security and barricades, but what about flight plans," he said.
The BSA has been meeting with government to address the problems, Holleyman said, and has encouragedCongress to include cybersecurity in the duties beingassigned to the proposed cabinet-level =" 2100-1001-933930.html"="">homeland defenseagency. But he said he did not think the "sense ofurgency" has been attached to the concerns.